Her Name was Rose
by xXChocaholicXx
Summary: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but what happens when a rose is no longer a rose. Or: A name can be temporary, a title can be forever, both can be gained and lost. But what is a name but a snapshot in time, a glimpse of who you are in a moment.


Her name was Rose Marian Tyler for the first nineteen years of her life. She had been a naive shop girl with grand ambitions and limited resources. She had no A Levels, but she had the bronze for the Jericho Street Junior School - Under Sevens Gymnastic Team.

Her name was Rose Tyler for the two years following that. She had run from her mundane life before into all of time and space hand in hand with a madman who could show her the stars. She had picked up a few other titles during this time: Bad Wolf, the Abomination, Valiant Child, Shiver, but nothing was ever good enough to replace the Doctor drawing out _Rose_ _Tyler_.

She had been Doctor Rose Tyler in the other universe, gaining back a lost father in the so called Pete's World. She went back to university, finished a Ph.D. in Astronomical Physics, but that title was rarely used in favor of Commander Tyler. Defender of the Earth spread across the galaxy as well.

After a rather lengthy process where she went unnamed and short subsequent reunion in the Prime Universe, she found she rather liked hearing Doctor Jonathon Noble alternate the drawled _Rose Tyler_ with _Wife_ and _Love._ Commander was also eventually replaced with progressively higher rankings, culminating in Director Tyler-Noble. John had been quite amused during her stint as a Brigadier.

Auntie Rose, Mummy and eventually Nan also joined the collection. She loved those, even when the started to cause her pain amidst the joy.

John had still insisted that she was Rose Tyler-Noble when she had emerged as the sole survivor of an attack that had burned so intense that it had turned the other attendees of the peace negotiations that she was acting as mediator at to ash. She didn't have to remember waking up from death during her fall back to earth from the Valiant, and the secondary resurrection after impact to realize she wasn't Rose Tyler anymore; looking in the mirror and seeing a face 40 some years too young reflected back was confirmation enough.

Widow had been an unbearable title to obtain, "I used to be a mother" was a living hell.

For the following millennia, she went nameless. However, new titles whispered themselves into the blossoming legends. The Lonely Goddess, the World Walker, and The Golden Lady were among a few of the nicer ones. The were a fair share of not so nice ones as well.

The death of Pete's universe had her as Alone in the void.

Time, as a scant few know, is in fact non-linear. It had been once not so eloquently described as wibbly-wobbly, and, being a manifestation of time, She knew this. So even though it had been billions of years in Pete's universe, when she found Herself on a time locked Gallifrey, She, as they say, rolled with it. She knew the man in the barn, the one that had pseudo summoned Her. She may not have known his face, but she knew his soul. She struggled to remember who she had been when she had known him, but that didn't taste right, so she reverted back to what her other name had been, but that was also a lie. At that point in time, she was the Moment.

Being a creature of consciousness alone had its perks. As the Moment, she had been allowed a glimpse into the Doctor's timelines, seeing his victories and losses, and, to her surprise, her re-entrance into it.

His surprise was even greater though, a disbelieving _Rose Tyler_ sending a shiver down her spine. She allowed him to call her that for only a relatively short amount of time. She only allowed it at all because She had no other name to offer in its place. Eventually the name Arkytior was offered as a compromise by the TARDIS, and She slowly remembered how to not be alone.

Arkytior lasted past the Doctor's final regeneration. All 26 of them and thousands of years finished with him dying of old age in her arms, a shudder sent throughout time and space by her grief.

Arkytior survived along with a Captain Jack Harkness and Lady Me. The trio traversed the galaxies, dependent on one another, loving one another, the only family they had left. Arkytior knew it wouldn't last, she had seen Jack's final death as the Face of Boe in the Doctor's timeline, and while he transformed into the being she had met on her first trip with the Doctor, she mourned him. She lent him strength in his last 24 years on New Earth and sent stars into supernova with Her anger at being abandoned one again.

The Trio now was a duo simply know as the Ladies Me and Her. Her dreaded the inevitable decline of the chip that was the sole sustaining force keeping her only companion alive. When it did happen, the rapid degradation left Her reeling and her sorrow was so great Her physical body couldn't handle the influx and Her was no more.

She was Time. She wove through the eons: she was the spark that ignited the Big Bang, the one who pulled the Doctor's shining thread and sent him on his path, she was Rose Tyler one last burning time and howled as Bad Wolf, she guided the DoctorDonna, held a young Melody Pond when she cried and took her to Leadsworth to grow up along side her parents. For Clara Oswin Oswald she simply watched as she broke into pieces within the timeline. She guarded those who guarded Time and she was the last sucking breath as reality collapsed, and when she was reborn within the next Big Bang, she started all over again.

* * *

So this is what happens when I have a few hours driving through the Scottish Highlands, I'm not even sorry. I've had this non-canon head-canon for years now of Jack and Rose holding hands at the collapse of the universe, unable to die. But I also love Jack as Boe, and his death would be so much more tragic.

Okay, a few things. The name changing was partially inspired by Emmitha and their awesome fic When the Wolf Runs. The Doctor having 26 regenerations is based off The Time of the Doctor, where the Time Lords grant the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, 13 in each.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, any of the lines that come from DW, or characters, but this was written by my overactive imagination.


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